MEDITATION and mediation are two main facets which links Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar or Guruji, the founder of The Art of Living (AOL) Foundation, to global fame. His vision of a violence-free society has united millions the world over through service projects and the courses he has developed.
Today, his work stands out more as an ambassador of peace.The AOL International Centre and Ashram, which he founded in Bengaluru sees thousands of visitors daily who visit him and take part in Sudarshan Kriya, a powerful and dynamic rhythmic breathing technique.
In Oman, AOL has been active officially since 1999. Despite a busy schedule, soft-spoken Gurudev spoke in an interview with Oman Daily Observer, where he dwelt about mediation efforts, the happiness programmes, his works, and how he looks forward to visiting the Sultanate.
Excerpts:
Q: As a mediator, can you explain some of the peace initiatives or dialogues undertaken?
A: If mediation was not there, it would have been worse. We cannot guarantee that everyone will live forever. Mediations are essential and necessary to put things back on track. Not all the time it can succeed, but the efforts has to be sincere through several rounds of talks. Wherever conflicts are brewing we have stepped in.
In 2001 Kashmir was in such a bad shape that the tourists were not allowed to venture after 5 pm and were supposed to move out in convoys, but today, things have changed and from 2007 the situation has improved a lot.
Gujjars Andolan was another of our effort which proved successful. During their strike in Rajasthan, they stopped the trains between Mumbai and Delhi by sitting on the rail tracks. We stepped in where the governments had failed.
On the very second day, the strike was withdrawn and things were back to normal.
The government had resorted to firing the protesters and not less than 2,000 had died.
Similarly, we had big crisis in Asom, Bodoland and held talks with Naxalities (Bihar), and Chattisgarh.
In Jharkhand, Maoists and terrorists had laid down arms and integrated into the mainstream.
Similarly, we managed to put over 500 to 600 Ulfa militants back on track. We also did some work in Sri Lanka (Jaffna), but if the parties had listened to us, the war would not have worsened.
It was the adamancy and unwillingness to budge that aggravated the problem.
They believed more in military than in dialogue. This is the place where we almost got success but went out of our hand but we continued our work there.
Q: AOL has done lot of work towards efforts in solving Middle East crisis, especially in Iraq.
A: Yes, we have done a lot in Iraq. In the past we brought Palestinians and Israelis together.
This aspect has been covered widely in German magazines, about our programmes in Deutschland.
In Palestine, our work was not enough to douse the fire… there is also pockets to peace initiatives happening.
We also did lot of trauma relief and trust building exercises along the border fence on both the sides. But language was a big barrier there since we don’t have enough people and volunteers to carry our work… we had our shortfalls, resources, language barrier, and volunteers… all this was the pinch.
We are holding trauma relief programmes. People-to-people relation is more important which we try to establish but vested interests and governments get involved at high levels.
We as an NGO, as a spiritual organisation have our own limitations and gave them moral and ethical support and tried to bridge the gap and rebuild the trust among the communities.
Q: How about being AOL given a chance once again?
A: We will definitely try to take initiative if given another chance. Like in Iraq again there was lot of hope but then we could not achieve much as expected. The foundation has benefited thousands of Iraqi citizens and imparted leadership training and peace building initiatives to Members of Parliament in Arbil, Kurdistan.
In 2006, Iraqi women underwent training to become AOL teachers, with the aim of alleviating their suffering. So far, 5,000 Iraqis have undergone AOL trauma relief workshops and training in Ayurveda.
We are sincere and do not have anything for ourselves. Secondly we want people to be happy and peaceful and have no vested interests. On religious lines we are very neutral and politically we are neither communist nor we capitalists.
Q: From where do you get your inspirations or ideas from?
A: As I said all ideas come from a calm collective mind. So when you meditate you recharge yourselves and that inspiration comes from inside and from a divine light, the light within… every human being has a light within and that light is the wisdom which guides us…from my own experience.
We train people in many skills and then one has to be in touch within oneself to be free from stress and prejudice.
Our main goal is Vasudeva Kudumbam, (universal family), the whole world is one family to see people of all races, language, nationality, religion and we are grown with that tendency which is good enough to inspire anyone.
When we started (AOL) people had lot of prejudice and managed through rough weathers.
Now people understand that we are here to help them.
Q: How do you visualise the future and what are your plans?
A: I feel humanity has to address bigger challenges today. A lot of people have no food, no clothing, no home and we must fight poverty instead of fighting among nations.
We should fight illness, depression, heart diseases plaguing the world. We have to address these issues and humanity should come together. We need to fight evils of intoxication, drugs, alcoholism, crimes against women and not among religion, race, or nationality.
AOL opened 468 schools, where about 40,000 children are studying with free food otherwise they might land up in bonded labour.
Q: Have you trained any to take up your role or chosen your successor…
A: We have trained a number of teachers, I have not thought about, but we have formed a trust everywhere where the people will take care of everything.
Q: Any plans to visit the Sultanate…
A: Maybe by next year (2015) I hope to visit Oman. AOL’s Oman Chapter has been active since 1999 formally when it launched the Youth Leadership Training Programme (YLTP). It has been successful towards developing women entrepreneurs by conducting several training programmes.
Courtesy : Oman Daily Observer
